Method and telecommunication system for indicating the receipt of a data message

ABSTRACT

The method operates in a telecommunications network having at least one subscriber terminal corresponding to at least one subscriber at a subscriber location. The method implements a message waiting indication service for indicating the presence of a data message corresponding to the at least one subscriber in a data message platform. The method begins in step 100 by receiving the data message at the data message platform. A message waiting signal is generated as shown in step 102. The message waiting signal is transmitted to the telecommunications network as shown in step 104 and a message waiting indication signal is generated at the telecommunications network as shown in step 106. Finally, a message waiting indication signal is transmitted to the subscriber terminal in response to the message waiting signal.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to telecommunication systems and emailsystems, and in particular to systems and methods for providing messagenotification.

BACKGROUND ART

Many users currently avail themselves of email messaging services thatallow these users to send, store and receive email messages quickly andefficiently to other users around the world. While these servicesoriginated in the context of business information networks, many usersnow have access to such services via home computers, the Internet andthe World Wide Web. To access such services via a home computer the userneeds to establish a connection with their service provider, generallyvia a modem, and check their electronic mailbox to determine if newmessages have been received. Because some users connect to their serviceproviders infrequently, messages to these users may not be read in atimely fashion.

Some telephonic voicemail services, on the other hand, can providenotification to a subscriber that voicemail messages are waiting.However, access is limited to voicemail messages received via thissystem.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is described with particularity in the appended claims.However, other features of the invention will become apparent and theinvention will be best understood by referring to the following detaileddescription in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 presents a block diagram representation of a system in accordancewith the present invention.

FIG. 2 presents a block diagram representation of a system in accordancewith further embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 presents a flowchart representation of a method in accordancewith various embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 presents a schematic diagram of the system in accordance withvarious embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 presents a flowchart representation of a method in accordancewith alternative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 presents a flowchart representation of a method in accordancewith further alternative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 presents a flowchart representation in accordance with variousalternative embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 presents a modified perspective view of a subscriber terminal inaccordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The various embodiments of the present invention yield severaladvantages over the prior art. In one embodiment, the system and methodof the present invention provide a notification to a telecommunicationservice subscriber of the presence of a data message at a messageplatform. In other embodiments of the present invention, a signalgenerated by a security platform is used to trigger the transmission ofan indication to the subscriber.

In various embodiments of the present invention the data messageplatform is a part of a data message network independent from thetelecommunications network and its standard suite of services. Thepresent invention provides a coupling between these two networks inorder to provide notification over the telecommunications network ofactivity on the data network—via a different medium.

FIG. 1 presents a block diagram representation of a system in accordancewith the present invention. A telecommunications network 60 includes atleast one subscriber terminal 80 corresponding to at least onesubscriber at a subscriber location. The present invention implements amessage waiting notification service for indicating the presence of adata message in a data message platform 40 corresponding to thesubscriber. The operation of the various components of the presentinvention will be described in context of the figures that follow.

FIG. 2 presents a block diagram representation of a system in accordancewith further embodiments of the present invention. Data message platform40 is coupled to, and is capable of receiving messages from, datanetwork 200. Data message platform 40 includes an optional subscriberdatabase 210 for determining whether a particular subscriber to a datamessage service is also a subscriber to a message notification servicein accordance with the present invention.

Telecommunications network 60 includes a telecommunications network node250 for coupling to and communication with a plurality of subscriberterminals including subscriber terminal 80. Processor 220 controlsselected operations of the telecommunications network 60 and optionallyis coupled to subscriber database 230. Voice platform 240 is capable ofproviding voice signals to subscriber terminal 80 via telecommunicationsnode 250. Subscriber terminal 80 optionally includes a display device260.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the methods described hereinare implemented in an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) used by manylocal exchange carriers and inter-exchange carriers. This provides anefficient and uniform method of implementation for both local andlong-distance telecommunication service. In this embodiment, thetelecommunications network node can be a central office switch and theprocessor 220 and subscriber database 230 can be implemented usingeither a service control point (SCP) of the advanced intelligent networkor a service node intelligent peripheral (SNIP) that is further coupledto the network.

FIG. 3 presents a flowchart representation of a method in accordancewith various embodiments of the present invention. The method begins instep 100 by receiving a data message at the data message platform 40. Amessage waiting signal is generated as shown in step 102. The messagewaiting signal is transmitted to the telecommunications network 60 asshown in step 104 and a message waiting indication signal is generatedat the telecommunications network 60 as shown in step 106. Finally, amessage waiting indication signal is transmitted to the subscriberterminal 80 in response to the message waiting signal.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the data message platform 40is an email server operating in communication with a data network. Inoperation, when an email message is received, a message waiting signal,such as a data flag, is generated indicating that a message is waitingfor the particular subscriber that the email message is addressed to.When the message waiting indication signal is received by thetelecommunications network 60, the subscriber's terminal 80 can benotified via the message waiting indication signal.

In various embodiments of the present invention, the subscriber terminal80 is a telephone with a display device. The message waiting indicationsignal can take the form of a data signal to the telephone that causesthe activation of a message waiting light. Alternatively, other displaydevices that allow text or graphical data can be used to indicate thepresence of a message waiting. For instance, a “email waiting” messagecan be displayed or a graphical icon representing the same meaning.

In other embodiments, the message waiting indication includes providinga modified dial tone, such as a stutter-dial-tone, to the subscriberterminal 80 in response to an off-hook indication from the subscriberterminal 80 to the telecommunications network 60. When the subscriberpicks up the telephone, the stutter-dial-tone is noticeable and thesubscriber is alerted to the presence of a data waiting message.

FIG. 4 presents a schematic diagram of the system in accordance withvarious embodiments of the present invention. In these embodiments,telecommunications network 60 transmits the message waiting indicationsignal to a subscriber terminal 122 that is a paging device. In one suchembodiment, this message waiting indication signal takes the form of aalphanumeric page whose text indicates to a subscriber, via display 124a text message 126 that says, for example, “email waiting”. In a furtheralternative embodiment, a numeric message can be sent. For example, aparticular numeric string such as “1212” or a telephone number uniquelycorresponding to the email platform can be used to indicate a emailmessage waiting.

In a further embodiment of the present invention the data messageplatform 40 is a unit capable of receiving a facsimile messagecorresponding to the subscriber. In this embodiment, the data messageplatform 40 is coupled to a network that is capable of transmitting afacsimile message. In one embodiment this network is the POTS network.Alternatively, this network could include a data network such as theinternet.

FIG. 5 presents a flowchart representation of a method in accordancewith alternative embodiments of the present invention. Common referencenumerals are used to refer to steps that correspond directly to thesteps previously described in conjunction with FIG. 3. In theseembodiments, the subscriber to services provided by thetelecommunications network must separately subscribe to a messagenotification service. In this way, it is possible that only a subset ofsubscribers to the telecommunication network 60 are provided with themessage notification service.

In step 130, a subscriber message address is retrieved from a subscriberdatabase for the message notification subscriber. In one embodiment,this database, preferably indexed by the telephone number of thesubscriber, includes field entries for the subscriber's message address(such as the subscriber's email address) and optionally a field thatindicates if the subscriber is authorized for the service. In step 132,the telecommunications network 60 queries the data message platform 40to see if messages are waiting for a particular subscriber bytransmitting a status request signal from the telecommunications network60 to the data message platform 40. In the preferred embodiment, thismessage contains the data address for the subscriber as a means foridentifying, a particular email-box to the data message platform 40. Inresponse to this message the data message platform 40 determines ifmessages are waiting for the subscriber by checking the status of themessage waiting signal and transmits this information back to thetelecommunications network 60 as shown in step 104.

Steps 106 and 108 proceed as previously described in conjunction withFIG. 3. Step 110 reflects the operation of the subscriber terminal 80 ofactivating its display device in response to the activate messagewaiting signal received from the telecommunications network 60. Aspreviously described this could entail illuminating a light, displayingan icon, text or numeric message or further could encompass analternative display method indicative to the subscriber that a messageis waiting.

FIG. 6 presents a flowchart representation of a method in accordancewith further alternative embodiments of the present invention. Commonreference numerals are used to refer to steps that correspond directlyto the steps previously described in conjunction with FIGS. 3 and 5. Asin the embodiments associated with FIG. 5, the subscriber to servicesprovided by the telecommunications network 60 must separately subscribeto a message notification service. In these embodiments the data messageplatform 40 includes a subscriber database as described in conjunctionwith FIG. 5, yet indexed by message address rather than by telephonenumber.

After a message waiting signal is generated in step 102, the subscriberdatabase is searched to determine if the recipient of the message is asubscriber to the message notification service as shown in step 142. Ifso, the subscriber's telephone number is retrieved by the data messageplatform 40 as shown in step 140. Further, a message is transmitted tothe telecommunications network 60, preferably including the subscriber'stelephone number, indicating that a message is waiting for thatparticular subscriber.

From the above descriptions in conjunction with FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 itshould be evident to one of ordinary skill in the art that in variousembodiments of the present invention either the data message platform 40or the telecommunication network 60 can check to determine if a messagecorresponds to a subscriber and can cause the transmission of a messagewaiting signal between the message data platform 40 and thetelecommunications network 60.

FIG. 7 presents a flowchart representation in accordance with variousalternative embodiments of the present invention. Common referencenumerals are used to refer to steps that correspond directly to thesteps previously described in conjunction with FIGS. 3, 5 and 6. Inthese embodiments a particular message waiting signal is transmitted tothe subscriber terminal 80 only after a security signal is received froma security service platform as shown in decision block 150.

In one such embodiment of the present invention a security platformreceives an indication from a security system at the subscriber'slocation that the subscriber as returned home. An example of suchindication would be an activation of a door sensor at the subscriber'slocation during a period when the alarm is armed followed shortly by adisarming of the system. In response, the security system transmits adisarm signal the security service platform, which in turn, sends asecurity signal to the telecommunications network 60. This allows thetelecommunication network 60 to actively notify a subscriber who hasjust returned home that one or more data messages are waiting.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, the security signal isforwarded to the telecommunications network only during certain times ofday. This can be used to avoid the triggering of a telephone call lateat night when the subscriber disarms the system, not in response toreturning home, but rather in another event. This embodiment isimplemented alternatively by disabling the disarm signal from thesecurity system at the subscriber location or by disabling thegeneration of the security signal at the security service platformduring the selected blackout period.

In a further alternative embodiment of the present invention, thesecurity system at the subscriber location has a security panel forarming and disarming the system that includes message waiting indicationon the security panel for indicating the presence of a data message atthe data message platform. In this fashion, the security system of thepresent invention includes the functions of he subscriber terminal inthis respect.

Alternatively, the security system at the subscriber location includes amessage waiting button and selective activation circuit that, whenselected, and when the system is disarmed triggers the generation of thedisarm signal as described above. When the message waiting button isdeselected, if the security system is disarmed, no disarm signal istransmitted to the security service platform. In this fashion, thesubscriber has control over the activation or deactivation of thefeature regardless of the particular time of day.

In one such embodiment, the transmission of the message waiting signalto the subscriber terminal includes a telephone call placed from a voicemessage platform to the subscriber terminal. If the subscriber answersthe call, a voice message can be played to the subscriber verballyindicating the presence of data messages ready to be reviewed.

In a preferred embodiment, the particular method of transmission of amessage waiting signal would be supplemented by other methods previouslydescribed, such as the illumination of the message waiting light,various displays, either on a telephone or security panel, and paging.Further, these supplemental methods would not be conditioned on thereceipt of the security signal, only the placing of the telephone callwould be held until the receipt of a security signal from the securityplatform. In this fashion, the message waiting light would beilluminated, for instance, by transmitting the appropriate messagewaiting signal immediately in response to the generation of the messagewaiting indication signal.

FIG. 8 presents a modified perspective view of a subscriber terminal inaccordance with various embodiments of the present invention. Inparticular, an example implementation is represented in accordance withthe inventions described in conjunction with FIG. 7. Subscriber terminal80 is implemented via telephone set 300 that includes a display device310. After receipt of a message at an email platform, a message waitingsignal is sent to telephone set 300 that results in the display of themessage “email waiting” on the display device 310. Further, after thesubscriber returns home after a night at the theatre, she enters herhouse and disarms her home security system. The security system sends amessage to a security platform that she is now home. Her home telephoneservice responds, by placing a telephone call from a voice platform thatplays a voice message over handset 320 when she answers the phone thatsays “an email is waiting”.

While various embodiments of the present invention have discussed theuse of a telephone for a subscriber terminal 60, a personal computer,acting as a telecommunications device with either speaker and microphoneor a supplemental handset, could likewise be used within the scope ofthe present invention.

The various methods described herein, in a preferred embodiment, areintended for operation as software programs running on a computerprocessor. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that otherhardware implementations such as application specific integratedcircuits, programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices couldlikewise be constructed to implement the methods described herein. Inshould also be noted that the various methods of the present inventioncould be stored on a tangible storage medium such as a magnetic oroptical disk, read-only memory or random access memory and be producedas an article of manufacture.

Thus, there has been described herein a concept, as well as severalembodiments including a preferred embodiment, of a method andtelecommunication system for providing a message notification service.Because the various embodiments of methods and systems providenotification via a telecommunications network of activity on anindependent data message platform, they provide a significantimprovement over the prior art. Additionally, the various embodiments ofthe present invention herein-described have other features thatdistinguish the present invention from the prior art.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosedinvention may be modified in numerous ways and may assume manyembodiments other than the preferred forms specifically set out anddescribed above. Accordingly, it is intended by the appended claims tocover all modifications of the invention which fall within the truespirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. In a telecommunications network having at leastone subscriber terminal corresponding to at least one subscriber at asubscriber location, a message waiting indication service including amethod of indicating the presence of a data message corresponding to theat least one subscriber in a data message platform, the methodcomprising the steps of: receiving the data message at the data messageplatform; generating a message waiting signal; transmitting the messagewaiting signal to the telecommunications network; generating a messagewaiting indication signal at the telecommunications network; receiving,at the telecommunications network, a security signal from a securityservice platform indicating the presence of the at least one subscriberat the subscriber location; and transmitting a message waitingindication signal to the subscriber terminal in response to the messagewaiting signal and the security signal.
 2. The method of claim 1 whereinthe step of providing a message waiting indication includes providing amodified dial tone to the subscriber unit in response to an off-hookindication from the subscriber unit to the telecommunications network.3. The method of claim 1 wherein the data message platform is coupled toa data network and wherein the data message is an electronic mailmessage.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the data message is afacsimile message.
 5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the stepof: transmitting a status request signal from the telecommunicationsnetwork to the data message platform to determine if a message iswaiting for the at least one subscriber.
 6. The method of claim 1further comprising the step of determining if the at least onesubscriber is a subscriber to the message waiting indication service. 7.The method of claim 1 wherein the subscriber terminal includes a pager.8. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscriber terminal includes atelephone.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the subscriber terminalincludes a personal computer acting as a telecommunications device. 10.The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting the messagewaiting indication signal includes placing a telephone call from a voicemessage platform to the at least one subscriber terminal.
 11. The methodof claim 10 wherein step of transmitting the message waiting indicationsignal includes playing a voice message indicating the presence of adata message corresponding to the at least one subscriber in a datamessage platform.
 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the step ofproviding a message waiting indication includes transmitting an activatemessage waiting signal to the subscriber unit from thetelecommunications network.
 13. The method of claim 12 furthercomprising the step of activating a display device coupled to thesubscriber unit in response to the activate message waiting signal. 14.The method of claim 13 wherein the display device includes a messagewaiting light.
 15. The method of claim 13 wherein the display deviceincludes a text display and wherein the step of activating the displaydevice includes displaying a text message.
 16. The method of claim 13wherein the step of activating includes displaying a message waitingicon.
 17. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of: inresponse to a message waiting signal, retrieving from a subscriberdatabase a telephone number corresponding to the at least onesubscriber.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the step of retrieving isperformed by the message platform.
 19. The method of claim 17 whereinthe step of retrieving is performed in the telecommunications network.20. In a telecommunications network having at least one subscriberterminal corresponding to at least one subscriber at a subscriberlocation, a system for providing a message waiting indication servicefor indicating the presence of a data message corresponding to the atleast one subscriber, the system comprising: a data message platform forreceiving the data message corresponding to the at least one subscriber,for generating a message waiting signal and for transmitting the messagewaiting signal to the telecommunications network; a processor, coupledto the telecommunications network, for generating a message waitingindication signal; and a telecommunications network node fortransmitting a message waiting indication signal to the subscriberterminal, wherein the telecommunications network receives a securitysignal from a security service platform indicating the presence of theat least one subscriber at the subscriber location and message waitingindication signal is generated in response to the security signal andthe message waiting signal.
 21. The system of claim 20 wherein thetelecommunications network node provides a modified dial tone to thesubscriber unit in response to an off-hook indication from thesubscriber unit to the telecommunications network.
 22. The system ofclaim 20 wherein the data message platform is coupled to a data networkand wherein the data message is an electronic mail message.
 23. Thesystem of claim 20 wherein the data message is a facsimile message. 24.The system of claim 20 wherein the processor transmits a status requestsignal from the telecommunications network to the data message platformto determine if a message is waiting for the at least one subscriber.25. The system of claim 20 wherein the message platform includes asubscriber database, and wherein, in response to a message waitingsignal, the message platform retrieves, from the subscriber database, atelephone number corresponding to the at least one subscriber.
 26. Thesystem of claim 20 wherein the message platform determines if the atleast one subscriber is a subscriber to the message waiting indicationservice.
 27. The system of claim 20 wherein the telecommunicationsnetwork includes a subscriber database, and wherein, in response to amessage waiting signal, the processor retrieves, from the subscriberdatabase, a telephone number corresponding to the at least onesubscriber.
 28. The system of claim 20 wherein the processor determinesif the at least one subscriber is a subscriber to the message waitingindication service.
 29. The system of claim 20 wherein the subscriberterminal includes a pager and wherein the telecommunications nodeincludes a paging platform.
 30. The system of claim 20 wherein thesubscriber terminal includes a telephone.
 31. The system of claim 20wherein the subscriber terminal includes a personal computer acting as atelecommunications device.
 32. The system of claim 20 further comprisinga voice platform for placing a telephone call to at least one subscriberterminal.
 33. The system of claim 32 wherein the voice message platformplays a voice message indicating the presence of a data messagecorresponding to the at least one subscriber in a data message platform.34. The system of claim 20 wherein the telecommunications network nodetransmits an activate message waiting signal to the subscriber unit fromthe telecommunications network.
 35. The system of claim 34 wherein thesubscriber unit activates a display device coupled to the subscriberunit in response to the activate message waiting signal.
 36. The systemof claim 34 wherein the display device includes a message waiting light.37. The system of claim 34 wherein the display device includes a textdisplay and wherein the step of activating the display device includesdisplaying a text message.
 38. The system of claim 34 wherein thedisplay device displays a message waiting icon.
 39. In atelecommunications network having at least one subscriber terminalcorresponding to at least one subscriber at a subscriber location, amessage waiting indication service including a method of indicating thepresence of an email message corresponding to the at least onesubscriber in a data message platform, the method comprising the stepsof: receiving the email message at the data message platform; generatinga message waiting signal; determining if the at least one subscriber isa subscriber to the message waiting indication service; receiving, atthe telecommunications network, a security signal from a securityservice platform indicating the presence of the at least one subscriberat the subscriber location; transmitting a status request signal fromthe telecommunications network to the data message platform to determineif a message is waiting for the at least one subscriber; transmittingthe message waiting signal to the telecommunications network; generatinga message waiting indication signal at the telecommunications network;and transmitting a message waiting indication signal to the subscriberterminal in response to the message waiting signal and the securitysignal.
 40. The method of claim 39 wherein the step of transmitting themessage waiting indication signal includes placing a telephone call froma voice message platform to the at least one subscriber terminal. 41.The method of claim 40 wherein step of transmitting the message waitingindication signal includes playing a voice message indicating thepresence of a data message corresponding to the at least one subscriberin a data message platform.